How does a bill become a law?

Don’t trust Schoolhouse Rock – that’s for Americans. To become a law, a bill in the Canada’s Parliament needs to go through the following steps, and pass when voted on during each step:

It all starts with the first reading, when the bill is introduced.

Next comes the second reading, when other MPs or Senators get to debate the bill.

After that, the bill goes to a committee that studies and amends it line-by-line. Once they finish, the bill goes returns to the House or Senate for the report stage, where anyone can propose amendments.

The third reading is the moment of truth: no more changes, just a debate and a final vote on whether or not the bill should pass.

If a bill makes it through all of those steps – in both the House of Commons and Senate – it’s ready to get Royal Assent and become a law.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank my nominator for his support of this bill.

As a certified journeyman carpenter as my post-secondary education, I feel strongly that the apprenticeship system could be enhanced and would benefit from the introduction of such a bill that would provide national standards for each apprenticable trade. The bill also would encourage more trades to become certified apprenticable trades. We believe it would increase the labour mobility of working people in the skilled trades and would address some of the serious skills shortages we have going forward in the coming years.

Citizen Factory is an online tool for Canadian youth created by Apathy is Boring.
It includes information drawn from the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, which is reproduced in accordance with the Speaker's Permission. The official record of Parliamentary proceedings is available online through Parliament's website.